Four Marshals ( 四大名捕): two directors, one title, made famous by a martial arts novel written by Wen Rui’an.

Gordon Chan and Gao Qun Shu (co-director of The Message) are contending for the use of the title 四大名捕. Gordon Chan has acquired adaptation rights to the wuxia novel and wants to make a costume martial arts (film?) series based on the novel. Gao Qun Shu has already been filming a modern tale in Gansu under the same title but the story is unrelated to the novel.

In Gao Qun Shu’s film, the story is about four police and a fugitive. Casting includes Duan Yihong, Ni Dahong, Wu Jing (replacing Wang Baoqiang, though rumors persist that he may be filming secretly), Zhang Li, Francis Ng ,Charlie Yeung (Francis’ girlfriend), Yu Nan, (Xinhua) (2) (ifeng)HD slide show (4) (Sina.com) Francis and Yu Nan play world weary bounty killers who look to retire in Gansu after one last expedition. His favorite song is The Eagles’ Hotel California.

The Message has surpassed $220M at that box office and the prequel is set to begin filming next summer. (Sina)

Chinese movie-makers keep faith with martial arts

The Chinese film industry is hoping a little more martial arts magic will woo international audiences over the next 12 months with two productions set to take familiar stories one step further.

First up comes the US$12 million (eight million euro) budgetedThe Storm Warriors, directed by Hong Kong-based twins Oxide and Danny Pang, and set to make its film industry premiere at next month’s American Film Market (http://www.ifta-online.org/) as they try to sell it to the world.

The film is taken from the wildly successful Hong Kong comic series Fung Wan (Wind and Cloud), by Ma Wing-shing, which also inspired the Andrew Lau-directed The Stormriders (1998).

That film starred Asian idols Aaron Kwok and Ekin Cheng, and raked in HK$42 million (3.6 million euros) from the local box office that year. It still ranks as Hong Kong cinema’s 12th all-time top earner.

The Pangs — who built an international reputation thanks to the success of horror film such as The Eye (2002) — say they have tried to reinvent the martial arts genre with their production, reuniting Kwok and Cheng and mixing live action and cutting-edge computer generated imagery.

They also claim the story should stand on its own and not be thought of as a sequel, even thought it features the same characters.

The same line is being taken by the people behind the US$29 million (19 million euro) budgeted Shaolin Temple - which shares the same name as the 1982 film that launched the career of martial arts star Jet Li, and is obviously set around the same legendary martial arts school.

The film is set to star box office draws Jackie Chan, Andy Lau and Nicolas Tse — alongside more than 1,000 monks from the temple.

The film starring Li took in 100 million yuan (9.7 million euros) in China and saw the Shaolin monks start to take their martial arts skills on international tours, a trend which continues today.

But director Benny Chan — who made the award-winning New Police Story (2004) with Chan — told Chinese media that while his production shares a number of things in common with Li’s film, he plans to move the story of the monastery forward from the seventh century to the early 20th century.

Shaolin Temple will have its fight scenes choreographed by Hong Kong’s Corey Yuen (Red Cliff, X-Men) and is set for an end-of-2010 release. (Independent.co.uk)[site flagged for trojan virus]

Vivian Chow was photographed in a gay bar preparing for her role in Ann Hui’s ‘Up and Down’ 《上上下下》. Ann Hui arranged for Vivian to visit an lesbian bar establishment in Lan Kwai Fong and meet some gay women. Vivian is earning a reported seven figure fee for her role in the film costarring Sandra Ng.(Xinhua)

Vivian Hsu

Vivian Hsu has been cast in the lead of the new film from Cape No. 7 director Wei Te-Sheng, to be produced by John Woo. Vivian will be putting her multi-lingual skills to use as she will be speaking in Japanese. (Sina.com)

Ning Hao’s latest film ‘No Man’s Land’ is in post-production. It will feature a new side of Huang Bo, who is having a busy year with Cow, Radish Warrior and Crazy Racer. (Sina.com)

Zhang Yimou’s Three Guns is also in post-production and expected to be completed next month. The original story has changed and now is said to be three connected stories about paired couples and their quarrels. Staff have had to sign confidentiality agreements with $1M fines. Zhang Yimou has spent a great attention to the colors of the costumes discarding the originals and having them redone. Zhang is also busy working on his Turandot production at the Bird’s Nest. (Sina.com)

Yuen Woo-Ping’s new film about 19th-century hero Su Qi-Er (Beggar So) will open in Chinese cinemas around mid-February in time for the Chinese Lunar New Year, the movie’s producers announced on Monday.

Moviegoers will also be able to see a few scenes featuring the late Hollywood actor David Carradine, who was known for his role in the “Kill Bill” series. Director Yuen invited Carradine to work on his film after a pleasant collaboration in “Kill Bill” for which Yuen was the stunt advisor.

I read a script called Black Moon Rising, you know like the song, and it was fantastic. It was written by this young kid from Australia and it’s werewolves against vampires. They’re all in human form and somewhere in the middle of Australia, there’s this bank and these vampires try to rob this bank and the bank is owned by the werewolves (Laughs). It’s like a tongue-in-cheek thing, not a serious thing, but it was pretty funny that the bank robbers are vampires and the owner of the bank is a werewolf. There’s a human element in it so that’s something I might develop a little bit further…

Huang Yi

Huang Yi, though recently rumored to have gotten married, these photos are from the Manfred Wong produced ‘Stubborn Radish’

costarring Huang Bo. The film is scheduled for an Oct. 23rd release. (Xinhuanet.com)